16 comments:

Todd, the links you provided Theresa don't work. Perhaps you should look into it.

Terry's site features some beautiful background music. It will serve to calm our spirits while we clear up her misunderstanding. Apparently she equates women in Barbie clothes with "voilence", a word I cannot find in my Funk and Wagnalls.

And thank you for taking my call! It was a joy to talk to my friend(s).

Code Pink was made to look like a bunch of...

...courageous women with some serious steel in their spines. Try this yourself some time, my friend. Try serving yourself up to a mob of crazed fanatics, or even just one sadistic cop, who hate the very fact you even exist, and do so with the knowledge that your only reward will be a fleeting chance to shout a statement or display a banner. It will be an education.

These women do this time and time again. I am a Navy veteran (Vietnam), I know most of these women personally, and I am proud to call them my friends.

First of all, I just have to say this is my mom you're talking about. That being said you have to understand something. She understands what your "message" is. She isn't stupid, she's very well informed. What she doesn't understand and what saddens her (and me) is the way you go about things. Even though I disagree with you, I respect you for what you believe and like I've said on my blog, its because of this great country we live in that your opinions can be heard. But, to be disrespectful during a speech makes you look ignorant and bad and sends out the completely opposite message than what you're trying for (in my opinion). And I think that goes for any speech, whether its from Palin, McCain, Obama or Biden. We have to be able to listen to each other in order to understand each other. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to speak, even if you don't like it. I'm sure there are many platforms for the CODEPINK women to speak. If you let Obama have his moment, then let McCain have his too.

All I ask is for you to respect what my mom, what I and others like us are trying to say. We have opinions just like you.

So Kayla and Michael don't like our tactics. Thanks for the input, folks. We have already had this discussion many times. WE like our tactics, and we are going to stick with them and keep changing them as we see fit. I would strongly urge Kayla and Michael to use their energy and wisdom to advise groups in which they are members, and whose goals they wish to promote. If the Code Pinkers looked like fanatics at the RNC, then they were probably just trying to fit in :)peace,jim

Kayla, if your mom is too sensitive to have comments on her blog she needs to not accept comments. I'm sure she can do that. Otherwise, your mother is a grown woman and can take it, I'm quite sure. I looked at her blog and nobody has been disrespectful to her.

Kayla wrote: "its because of this great country we live in that your opinions can be heard."

First of all, thank you for the civil tone and thoughtful comment. I do think you're laboring under a misperception, though. America, love her as I do, is what's left of a great country, because we are less free than ever. (And our greatness is exactly proportionate to our Freedom.)

Code Pink does what we do because our opinions are NOT ALLOWED in today's America.

We do not have a free marketplace of ideas. We have a very strictly regulated marketplace of ideas, and those who point out that our foreign policy is bad for America, bad for the troops, and contrary to Liberty -- are denied a seat at the table. (This is why the rest of the world is stunned at our ignorance; most of us reside in the media bubble, which provides Info-tainment and a dangerous fantasy of the world, rather than reality.)

Consider this: Phil Donahue had the highest rated show on MSNBC when they dropped him. Internal memos revealed that it was because he was critical of the Iraq war.

Consider further: The best daily news broadcast in this country is Amy Goodman's DemocracyNow! Although the show sometimes lets its producers' liberal ideology show (the show's one serious flaw, in my opinion), it is absolutely the best America currently has to offer in terms of JOURNALISTIC EXCELLENCE... and most Americans have never heard of it -- despite all of the awards the program has won.

This is an example of ideological marginalization.

In my experience following the media (starting from a center-right position some ten years ago, setting out to inform myself about the nation's policies and the world), the most intelligent and incredibly informative viewpoints on the left side of the spectrum are marginalized out of existence in our increasingly fascist society (and I HATE to call it that, but words DO mean something, and this one applies -- please read Naomi Wolf's "The End of America" and you'll see I'm not just casually hurling labels).

The corporate media largely erases them from the public discussion. Their vital perspectives are heard rarely if ever, and those of us who read them and know the truth of things (the real forces at work, the actual histories of our relationships with terrorists and nations), have to watch as America makes one ill-informed decision after another... with predictably disastrous results at home and abroad... knowing there are solutions to the problems we face, but that those solutions -- especially peaceful ones -- are not allowed to be voiced, because they threaten the status quo, vested interest, and a lot of bottom lines.

Meanwhile the neoconservatives and others from the far right, despite their record of getting so many things badly wrong in recent years, only get increased access to the public, more seats at the table, and a bigger microphone from the corporate media (Kristol, Rove, Bill Bennett, and the numerous Culture Warriors who wish to divide us).

You may not like the fact that Code Pink disrupts speeches (Democratic ones, too -- We WERE in Denver and did what we could, only the security was much better... and much more professional, disciplined -- not acting like thugs, as in the Twin Cities)...

You may not agree with our message (or you might -- please consider reading my latest blog, "To the Haters," and tell me if you share my concerns or not)...

But you, Kayla, wrote: "We have to be able to listen to each other in order to understand each other. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to speak, even if you don't like it."

I couldn't agree more. But our side of the issues has been given VERY short shrift in this “discussion.” The legitimate, thoughtful Left is given virtually NO opportunity to speak in an environment that is increasingly strictly policed by our current corporate gatekeepers... whose business interests are intermingled with those of military contractors and other beneficiaries of the current policy, including our politicians.

You wrote: "I'm sure there are many platforms for the CODEPINK women to speak."

Your assumption is not true, I promise you. All those whose opinions about the Iraq war have been repeatedly vindicated, have been disappeared from the airwaves: Personas non gratas.

If Code Pink's views (or more precisely, the views of those who informed and inspired us) were given an open hearing in a free society, we wouldn't resort to disruption. We wouldn't have to. But this is increasingly a poor excuse for a free and open society.

The Founding Fathers warned us that we must always fight against government's tendencies toward oppression. They didn't say things like “it can't happen here, because this is America,” because they knew it can happen anywhere, and frequently does. They urged constant vigilance... against just the type of governance America now faces.

Code Pink heeds their warning.

We are informed peaceniks in an America with "Free Speech ZONES" (little cages with no water and few bathrooms, miles from the PERMITTED discussion).

We are concerned citizens in an America where the government freely breaks the laws, torturing and eavesdropping on its citizens without probable cause or a warrant (MONTHS before 9/11), jailing people preemptively (sometimes holding them for months AFTER they've been acquitted by a jury), and which continues to pass laws that associate peaceful dissent with treason and terrorism (a law is in the works right now that would call anyone who negatively impacts the profits of a corporation, even through peaceful, informed protest, a “terrorist”).

(Free societies don't turn overnight into Police States; they do so gradually, like ours is doing... and it is NOT “patriotic” to never question your country's leaders -- quite the opposite.)

Kayla, you're obviously a thoughtful, intelligent person, so I hope you'll consider what I'm saying. I hope you'll read Naomi Klein's “Shock Doctrine” or John Perkins' “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” for a start... or start listening to DemocracyNow! on a regular basis (tune out the tone, and you get great facts and perspectives).

I hope you'll consider listening to the other side of the argument, but it takes some personal initiative (because it's not what is put before you on the cable 24/7s -- NO one is presenting our side of the argument in the mainstream media; you have to seek it out for yourself).

I'm convinced that if you knew what I know, you TOO would want to shout it from the rooftops... or wherever you could shout it... while you still can... because these policies (the ones we're fighting against) are destroying what is best and most beautiful and fundamental to America: Freedom.

JO'D you said a mouthful. Noam Chomsky points out precisely why the voices of dissent are never heard. When you watch mainstream media, it contains two components: content and filler. The content is the advertisements that the corporations use to get us to buy their products. The filler is the info-tainment (murders, school shootings, anything to keep us fearful) that keeps us watching until the next round of commercials (content) can be viewed. That's why viewers of mainstream media BELIEVE Islam/Al Qaeda/Muslim are interchangeable,and the U.S. is a totally benevolent and free country, yet they KNOW when the newest iphone will be on the market and who makes the best HD t.v. known to mankind. This is no accident. Well, the filler only lasts about 2-5 mins. That's a reasonable amount of time if your just regurgitating the same few lines that have already become ingrained in the minds of the masses. If a new idea is introduced that completely opposes the accepted religion, you need more than 60 seconds to include the facts to back it up. It can't be done efficiently between commercials. I, too, agree every opinion should be heard. Unfortunately, the voices of dissent have no real platform, so they dress in pink and jam their way into the places that are most inconvenient for the deliverers and followers of the same old destructive message.

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